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I have it on good authority that something neat is going to happen on NamePros at around 3pm today. Check it out if you get a chance…

A lot has been said about social networking sites being huge opportunities for advertisers. There is a captive audience who navigated to a particular website, and they spend countless hours meeting up with friends, sending messages to friends old and new, and building their own online homes. It would seem like a great place for advertisers to get their messages out and attempt to generate interest in their brand or product.
The social networking sites typically have the consumer base, and the advertisers wish to reach these consumers. The problem is converting these users to paying customers, and that might be harder than first imagined. I haven’t heard about or seen a very successful business model that is mutually beneficial for the website, the advertisers and the website’s visitors. I know there are countless people trying to monetize this traffic, but what happens if they can’t? I sure hope someone can identify a successful model integrating social networking and ad spend, because there is a lot of money banking on it.
For me, I am sticking to the “old fashioned” directory type of site. It will evolve with time, but I think there is still a place for it even in 2008 and beyond.

Posting will be very light (if at all) today, as my friend and I are finishing up the directory for Lowell.com. While development has taken longer than I thought it would, I think that is the case with every website.

In light of the downturn in the US economy and the potential Snowe legislation on the horizon, I am wondering if you are spending more or less on domain names that you have in the past. Results of recent domain auctions would indicate that people may be spending less on domain names at this moment, but I am wondering whether it’s a sign of the times or if the auction market has become saturated, and sales only appear to be down when they really aren’t.
Over the last few months, I think I have been investing about the same on domain names than I did in the past. I have been focusing less on the second tier names and more on the top quality domain names for development. Instead of buying 10 or so average to good domain names per month, I have been buying 3-5 better domain names for somewhere around the same price. I don’t know if this is a reflection of economic conditions or fear of the potentially damaging legislation, but I have been buying less names, although the amount I have been spending is around the same.
I am always buying high quality domain names that I can develop. Well, on second thought,

Early last week, a reader of mine asked me to go through a portion of his portfolio (about 250 domain names) to review which names I would renew and which names I would drop. He offered to pay me for my time, and I agreed to do this in exchange for a donation to the ICA. While reviewing his list of domain names, I thought about the types of names I think he should keep and the names I think he should drop.
Most of the names in his list have strong keywords, but many were backwards and out of place. This isn’t one of his names, but it would be like RestaurantsNewYorkDelis.com or something like that. While the keywords

I want to thank everyone for coming out to dinner last night, and I would like to give a special thanks to Domain Capital for surprising us all and picking up the tab. It was very nice of them to “quietly” and unexpectedly sponsor the dinner, and we are all appreciative.
The turnout of 23 was strong despite the poor weather, and we had a good chance to network with others in the industry. We had a diverse group involved in all aspects of the domain industry, which made for good conversation. Even nicer was that I had the chance to network with people I didn’t know before the dinner, and I expect to stay in touch. We work in a small industry, and it’s nice to have an opportunity to socialize with like minded people who live in the same area.
Details about the next get together will be posted soon. If you would like to be added to the list, please let me know. Thank you again to those who came to dinner and to Domain Capital.